Council chiefs and hoteliers are working together in a bid to overhaul Weymouth’s hotel industry.

Weymouth and Portland Borough Council (WPBC) has joined forces with the Weymouth Hoteliers, Guesthouses and Leaseholders Association (WHGLA) as part of a strategy to improve the quality of accommodation on offer and make the town a year-round destination.

Leader of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, Jeff Cant said: “The whole project is to drive up the quality of accommodation in the town and while there are a lot of successful hotels, we want others to be trying to up their game and provide better accommodation.”

A report by the council’s strategic director, Martin Hamilton, presented at a management committee on September 19 said, despite its natural assets, Weymouth was underperforming relative to similar seaside destinations.

The report stated local hotel operators were struggling to make the investments required to upgrade their accommodation offer.

As part of a new initiative, the committee has recommended hoteliers move to ‘full repairing’ leases and take over maintenance responsibility for building exteriors from the council, which would be reflected by a lower rent.

The council will also encourage hoteliers on 10 year rolling leases to take up longer contracts, with ‘full repairing’ leases of up to 60 years becoming the norm.

“The longer leases make it easier to borrow money so it’s better for hoteliers,” Mr Cant said.

He added, where there was a clear business case, several hotels would be redeveloped as high-quality holiday apartments to diversify available accommodation and anyone wanting to take out a lease would have to provide a viable business plan.

The report said the changes would over time reduce the council’s ‘future maintenance liabilities, secure increased net revenues and reduce its management costs’ but Mr Cant said the focus was not on money.

“The plan is to reinvest everything into a better town. We want to make the focus less on revenue and more on our legacy and to do the best we can for the town.

“Weymouth and Portland needs to be the all year round destination and our hotel community are absolutely key to encouraging visitors to stay and boost our local businesses. Our new policy looks to give more clarity and confidence to tenants and has been welcomed by their Association,” he said. 

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LOOKING AT THE BIGGER PICTURE

Chairman of the Weymouth Hoteliers, Guesthouses and Leaseholders Association and owner of the Channel View Guesthouse, Alison Weller said Mr Cant had been very good at building a better relationship with hoteliers.

“By sitting at the table together we’ve been able to look at what the issues are. By building a better relationship we’ll can have better quality hotels and a better-looking seafront.” she said.

She added the association was keen to look at the bigger picture for the regeneration of Weymouth.

However, she said longer leases were not always a better deal as it was still difficult for hoteliers to get loans on 60-year leases. 

She added it could be difficult for the council to persuade some hoteliers to take on full-repair leases as it was easier for some people, such as elderly hoteliers, if the council maintained the outside of their property.

Mrs Weller, who maintains the exterior of her guesthouse, said she thought lower rents would allow people to make needed improvements to properties and could see hoteliers take pride in their hotels appearance.